To the Last Drop

Test your water conservation skills in the relay race “To the Last Drop!” A game that will have you thinking twice about every bit of H2O you waste!

What you need:

Put two buckets outside on your porch or backyard and collect rainwater in both

Add a few drops of olive oil to each bucket to prevent mosquitoes from breeding

Two empty buckets

Three place markers (cones, rocks or anything that is heavy enough not to blow away).

A park or open outdoor space to play

Three signs that read “Washing Machine,” “Shower,” and “Leaky tap.”

Dice

Two cups

Two cups with a small hole in the bottom (try using plastic pop bottles, cut the neck off and cut a hole in the bottom).

What you need to do:

Set it up

Place the buckets of rainwater beside each other making sure they have the same amount of water in them. Place the empty buckets at the other end of the playing field. Evenly space the three markers between the two buckets and attach one of the signs to each of these stations. The cup with the hole goes at the station marked “Shower” and the cups without a hole go inside the buckets of water.

Team members will go through the stations one at a time, doing each activity the number of times they rolled on the dice. Once the player gets to the empty bucket, he/she will dump their water into the bucket and hurry back to hand the cup to the next person.

Let the games begin

The object of the game is to get as much water as possible to the empty bucket. Form two teams and line them up behind their bucket of water. To make the game more difficult, enforce the rule that players cannot cover the top of the cup during the game. Decide how long you want your game to last and pick a person to be the timer. Before the game begins, have each team member roll the dice and remember their number – this is how many times the player needs to do the activity at each station.

The washing machine: At this station you will need to spin in a circle just like a washing machine. The higher your number is, the more laundry you do, so the more you spin!

The shower: At this station dump the water from your cup into the cup with the hole in it, then catch the water back in your original cup. Every pour represents a 10 minute shower. So, if you roll a five, switch the water between the cups five times because you took a 50 minute shower!

Leaky tap: At this station, hop on one foot for every 100 drops of water that gets wasted down the drain. So, if you roll a six, hop six times because you lost 600 drops of water.

And the winner is?

At the end of the game, see which team gets the most water safely through the day and fills up the empty bucket! Notice anything funny? The people who did less laundry, took shorter showers, and had taps that leaked less, seemed to get more water to the end! What other ways can you think of to conserve water? Brainstorm some ideas and be an eco-hero by saving water everyday one drop at a time! And when it’s all said and done, remember to use the water you collected on some thirsty plants!